The Speaker of the House of Commons to step down

Originally Posted by Louis VI the Fat

Edit: you speak French, Adrian. Insults are disguised as compliments. Compliments disguised as insults.

My dearest friend, you are so right.

When a Frenchman says 'Je constate..' in the most sober, business-like manner, that's when he is about to launch his worst insults and insinuations. When he gives you a parting handshake and a smile as well, it is the surest sign that he is going to go straight to the police and his lawyer and sue you till kingdom come.

EDIT
I have to hand it to you, though.
In France it is unthinkable that a person would be arrested for wearing a tee-shirt quoting, say, Anatole France: 'Religion has done love a great service by making it a sin.' A huge stink would ensue.
In Britain a man has been arrested for wearing a tee-shirt that quoted Orwell: 'In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.' His arrest was doubly absurd in view of the text on his teeshirt. What made it triple absurd is that no one, not even a single member of parliament, raised his voice against this.

I still think this whole scandal is much ado about nothing. MP's claiming pocket money. All perfectly legal.

Corruption in Britain lies elsewhere.

Contuining on the theme of 'different countries, different norms'. In France or Italy, power is centrally located. Hierchical, pyramidal. In Britain, and also elsewhere in the English-speaking world, power is more privatized.

Corruption can be defined as those with power using unlawful means to amass fortune. In Belorus, you slip a customs officer 100 euros so your truck can pass. In France or the UK, this form of corruption is absent. One needs to look at more organised forms of the use of state power to enrich the powerful.

Somewhat famously, very different political organisation in France and the US have very similar results:
In France, in the article quoted in a previous post, Elf, the oil company, is a state-run company. The state uses the company for foreign policy and for personal enrichment. State powers are used to grant the (publicly owned) company priviliges, such as monopolies, priviliged treatment, access to information. The defense industry too is publicly run, and is made a tool of the state. The state makes little difference between foreign policy and defense industry policy, as every francophone African state can attest. Likewise, French foreign aid is usually spend on contracts for French state-run companies.

In the US, the oil company is privatized, and it uses the state for foreign policy and personal enrichment. State powers are used to grant the owners (privatized) priviliges, such as access to tax haves, tax loopholes, low gasoline taxes, regulation to increase the number of gas-guzzling vehicles etcetera. The defense industry too is privatized, and has made the state a tool. The state makes foreign policy on behalf of the defense industry. For example, as attests a billion dollar contract for Clearwater. Less directly, by massive defense spending,

Put simply, Elf was used by the French state for regime change of African dictators of oil-rich states. In the US, oil companies used the state for regime change of Arab dictators of oil-rich states. In both cases, state power is used by the few to have the many pay for their personal enrichment.


Britain is a financial centre. In its system more akin to the US: wealth and power are privatized. The corruption is the financial loopholes, the billions that dissapear in the City into the pockets of the few. The problem is not that they make money, the problem, the corruption, is their control and their use of state power to facilitate their enrichment.



In similar vein, and unlike the above argued succinctly and in proper English.

Britain is 'as corrupt as worst African states'Buzz up!

Britain, the US and Switzerland should rank among the world's most corrupt countries, according to a paper delivered to an economics conference at the weekend.

sounds like an old school class warrior who still digs the old marxist dogma as it is now presently configured which is to say Transnational progressivism:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transna..._progressivism

Marxism? Class warriorism? No! Merely showing the real means of corruption in Britain. Of which the many tax loopholes are a prime example.

Lord Ashcroft funds Tories from Belize tax haven


LORD ASHCROFT, deputy chairman of the Conservative party, has channelled money into party funds from the Central American tax haven of Belize, despite a ban on overseas donations.

About £4.79m has been transferred via a chain of companies to Bearwood Corporate Services, a key donor to the Conservative party, according to company documents.

That's five million quid right there. All made perfectly legal, if considered an abuse of the system.

The above is the face of British corruption: that enormous flow of capital between tax havens while the political class turns a blind eye.

Tax loopholes should be closed and UK tax should be lowered and massively simplified.

Originally Posted by rory_20_uk

Tax loopholes should be closed and UK tax should be lowered and massively simplified.

agreed, but i have no objection to sovereign territories organising their tax laws as they please.